1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a time-sharing drive apparatus for a motor of a camera, which can be advantageously used particularly with a digital camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, various kinds of electronic still cameras such as a digital camera have been proposed. In recent digital cameras which have been miniaturized, a liquid crystal color display is used in place of a view finder. To miniaturize the digital camera, a battery to be loaded therein must be made small. To increase the service life of the battery, the power consumption of the electronic elements must be conserved, minimizing the maximum power consumption thereof. However, the power consumption has been increased due to the use of the color liquid crystal display.
Moreover, the digital camera has a plurality of motors including a zoom motor for a power-zoom operation, a focusing motor for a focus control and a diaphragm pulse motor for driving a diaphragm. In such a digital camera, the zooming operation is carried out by driving the zoom motor while observing an object; the focusing operation is carried out by the focusing motor; and the opening and closing operation of the diaphragm is carried out by the diaphragm pulse motor. These operations sometimes take place at the same time. If the different operations simultaneously take place, a large amount of current flows and hence, energy loss is increased due to the internal resistance of the battery and a mal-function of the electronic devices may occur due to the voltage drop. To prevent this from occurring, in a digital camera having a power zoom lens, it is necessary to reduce the peak current upon starting the motor such as a zoom motor, to thereby reduce the power consumption.